THIS IS the droid you are looking for!

After having more problems than I could count with my old phone, an HTC Thunderbolt, I finally upgraded, and what an upgrade it turned out to be!

photo from Motorola

New design tool!

This year, I got a christmas present that I've been wanting ever since I first heard of it (around 2007 or 2008 when I was part of FIRST Robotics), the 3DConnexion SpacePilot Pro. I've always thought it would be an incredibly useful tool for 3D modeling, and having one sure confirms that, but I'm also finding all sorts of other uses for it!

More info and pics after the break!

Wow this year went fast

It's getting close to the new year and I'm realizing that I haven't posted nearly as much as I feel I should have. In this post, I'll try to give an update on everything I've been up to lately (hint, mostly schoolwork).

My new workbench, a printed #ingress symbol, Solar modules that I helped make, and an awesome robot (well, RC car)!

Google tech support

So, I use a Google Voice account for text messaging, and it's usually great, except that sometimes it will just completely stop sending or receiving messages, with no indication to me that it's happening!

Since there's no way to know if I've missed an important message, I decided to try to contact Google tech support... only to find out that they actually DON'T HAVE ANY.

They have a joke of a support forum that's almost never viewed by staff, and their phone system (which isn't listed anywhere on Google's sites, you have to find it yourself) is HORRIBLE, and usually just ends up telling you to go to the support website...

The issue I'm having seems to be fairly common among google voice users, so I'm really not sure why it's not getting any attention. But what's much more anoying is google's lack of any form of support.

Being one of the largest and most powerful companies on the planet, I can't figure out any explanation for them not providing human based support to their customers.

/end rant/

My Makerbot is MOBILE!

First of all, a million thank-you's go out to my dad and grandfather for their awesome birthday present of a bright orange Pelican 1620 roller case!

I just finished plucking all the foam (yay pelican foam!!) and was able to fit the Makerbot, it's interface board, a 1kG spool of filament, a section of filament feed tube, AND a surge protecting power strip!

I'll also be designing a filament spool holder that mounts to the extending handle on the case, and holds the feed tube, so that all I'll need to print on the go is a single outlet!

Here are some pictures of the filled case (the power strip goes just under the filament spool on the bottom layer of the case, but I hadn't pulled the foam out for it when I took the pictures)

Given that Pelican cases are essentially everything proof, I'd definitely recommend them as a way to transport the Makerbot!

And more bad news

Well, another stepper driver just failed, and this one at least makes sense (It's the Z axis driver, and I have a rather heavy Z axis, which takse more force than normal to move)

It legitimately let out the blue smoke, so at this point, I'll be salvaging what parts I can from these two drivers, and then waiting till I can upgrade the bot to a set of 4 pololu drivers.

Busy Busy Busy

Again sorry for the lack of dates, I've been juggling 17 credits of classes, and internship applications, so i've been a bit frazzled.

On top of that, just as I was getting moving again and making some cool stuff, my extruder's stepper driver seems to have bit the dust :-(

I'll post pictures of some of my latest prints soon, as well as a couple new mods!